Erica Caires, a political science student studying at the Santa Cruz Elementary and Secondary School, questioned the Santa Cruz City Council and government entities today, over the neglect of large tracts of abandoned land.
During her speech, she told those present that abandoned land “can be used with the help of the municipality or even the Regional Government in the form of contractual agreements or acquisition to create municipal urban vegetable gardens (allotments), similar to those created in Funchal.
Erica stressed that in the Madeiran capital there are “more than 200 municipal urban gardens, where citizens can grow their own vegetables. This she said is ideal, as it allows people to practice small-scale agriculture which actually helps reduce the communities’ reliance on imported agricultural goods and fosters an interest in land husbandry within local populations.”
Mayor, Filipe Sousa, said that the allotment idea had originally been presented in 2018 and that several impediments had dampened everyone’s enthusiasm towards the idea. However, the municipality is once again studying the possibility of creating urban agricultural spaces.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
